The following questions on preparing and executing a migration to Exchange 2010 were posed by the audience to a Computingweb seminar in February 2012. Answers are provided by migration specialists Mimecast. If you have further questions please post them in the Comments box below.

Roadmap

Q. Is the migration / transition process exactly the same for 2003 and 2007 to 2010?

Q. In migration from 2003, how can you ensure continuity of access for users to the same URLs for Outlook Web Access (OWA) and Active Sync during coexistence?

A. This is handled by redirects and eventually by DNS once the clients have been updated. This should form part of your migration plan, especially externally accessed Active Sync URLs.

Q. Exchange 2003 clients are not optimised for Exchange 2010. Should I expect problems?

A. Always expect some difficulties when migrating systems. Plan for them and you will not be caught by surprise. The limitations of using Outlook 2003 with Exchange 2010, especially around calendar functions, are well documented and should not catch you out.

A. Absolutely. Setting up co-existence is a daunting task but it is also well documented and should not pose any serious problems if you plan correctly. I recommend testing your environment in a lab to confirm that you have planned everything properly.

Q. What is the best way to migrate from Exchange 2003 with front end/ backend setup with multiple sites to migrate to Exchange 2010 with E2010 implementations taking place at separate times for each office?

A. This is something that can only be determined by your specific environment and the plan you attach to your migration. It would be best to plan each location and group of users separately with their plans being incorporated as sub plans for the overall migration plan.

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